While I warmed up to pitch in Cincinnati, the finger was so sore that I could barely hold the ball. One of the players came to me and said, "Forget it, Sandy. Don't even try it. Nobody will thank you for it."
Well, I pitched one inning and the damn thing split open. There was no blood to come spurting out; it was just a raw, open wound. The finger had split across the blood blister, though, and the dried blood, mixing perhaps with the sweat, was staining the ball as I threw.
The Reds made three hits and scored two runs. When I came back to the dugout at the end of the inning I told Walt [Alston] I didn't think I could make it.
Ya think? Koufax finally was sent to a cardiovascular specialist, and fortunately for him and the Dodgers (as well as baseball history) his finger did not have to be amputated. As he further describes in his autobio, it was touch and go there for awhile.
Ed Roebuck replaced Koufax, but had nothing that day: three Reds (Leo Cardenas, Vada Pinson and Hank Foiles) hit homers off him. The Dodgers knocked out Bob Purkey in the fourth, but they could never quite tie the score, and Moe Drabowsky--continuing his up-and-down season that would soon have him leaving Cincinnati for Kansas City--gave the Dodgers a preview of his sensational World Series performance against them in Game One of the 1966 World Series by shutting them down for six innings, allowing just three hits and striking out five.
Koufax was tagged with the loss, though most of the damage in the game was done by Roebuck. Final score: Reds 7, Dodgers 5.
IN Milwaukee, the Giants grabbed a quick lead in the first on a two-run homer by Orlando Cepeda, but Billy O'Dell left a waste pitch on 0-2 a bit too close to the plate in the fourth while facing Hank Aaron. Bam! Tie game.
But Samuel, who stayed in the game to play second, then made two errors in the ninth that allowed the Giants to score an unearned run and take a 4-3 lead. O'Dell wavered in the bottom of the ninth, in part due to an error by third baseman Jim Davenport; he left the game with the winning runs on base and just one out. But Bobby Bolin induced catcher Del Crandall to hit into a double play to hold off the Braves and preserve the win. Final score: Giants 4, Braves 3.
SEASON RECORDS: LAD 62-33, SFG 61-34
